Hasten reforms, GST, corporate leaders tell FM

Amid uncertainty in the global financial situation and an imminent slowdown in India's growth rate, top industrialists including Ratan Tata, Anil Ambani, Sunil Mittal and Anand Mahindra on Monday met finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to take stock of the situation. HT reports.

businessUpdated: Aug 02, 2011 01:08 IST

HT Correspondent Hindustan Times

Amid uncertainty in the global financial situation and an imminent slowdown in India's growth rate, top industrialists including Ratan Tata, Anil Ambani, Sunil Mittal and Anand Mahindra on Monday met finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to take stock of the situation.

The meeting stressed the need to introduce Goods and Services Tax (GST) while carrying on with other pending economic reforms and allowing greater level of foreign direct investment in various critical sectors to sustain growth.

In the two-and-a-half hour meeting with industry captains. Mukherjee underlined the need to carry on with corporate social responsibility while playing a pro-active role in taking the economy to the next step.

"The meeting was held to understand and share the concerns of the industry," a senior government official told HT.

The industry is reeling under a high interest regime for sometime now as the Reserve Bank of India has been hiking key policy rates since March 2010 to check rising inflation.

High inflation has dampened investments as input costs and costlier borrowing squeeze corporate profitability, forcing them to defer planned expansions.